


Ice Pauper

by Uniasus



Series: An Icy Royal Family [3]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/F, F/M, Pining, Slow Romance, Unrequited Love, Women's Rights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 22:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6926875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uniasus/pseuds/Uniasus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The solid spine he has grown used to her having fades and she is no longer a solider named Hawkeye but a girl named Riza who wants to be as least disruptive as possible. Roy hates the idea that he has caused her to revert to her old self.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Pauper

**Author's Note:**

> The previous two aren't required reads, but they do set up the scene.
> 
> Here you go, child-sister mine. A follow-up birthday gift to a previous one.

The first time he sees her, Roy just sees a potential interruption. A girl who is too young to have any idea about alchemy but probably knows a lot about how to make a mess and take up his teacher's time, delaying Roy's studies.

The second time, less than a day later, Roy changes his mind. She sticks her head into the study, blonde hair limp around her face and eyes down cast, to announce lunch is ready. His teacher responds by throwing a paper weight from his desk at her. She ducks back into the hallway to avoid the object in time. Roy watches the stone hit the door, splintering wood. If that had hit...

Riza is punished for her interruption. When Roy and his teacher have lunch, she is forced to stand and watch them eat while having none for herself. 

She isn't an annoyance in Roy's eyes anymore, she is just a child in need of protecting. He eats less than he wants at dinner, knowing she would only be allowed to eat the leftovers. 

The first time Roy sees her after he enlisted, he realizes how beautiful she has become.

When he had left that house, she was just starting to transform into a woman. Too young for him and he had spent too much time protecting her from her father to see her as anything near a woman whose figure was to be desired.

But now, despite her soldier’s stance and hard eyes, despite her new name, Hawkeye, and fondness for guns, Roy finds her nothing less than desirable.

It's a brief feeling, this is war and his mind is filled with bigger plans, but it comes and goes throughout his, and her, entire stint in the desert.

The fact that she protects him as much as he protects her in the war doesn't escape him.

He can't resist touching her when she exposes her back to be burned. There are secrets there that drove her father mad discovering and using them, secrets Roy wants to have but destroying them is his last act of protecting her from her father.

Roy runs his fingers over the fresh burn and then over the bandages. Riza shivers both times, but he can't say why. But she does turn to him and says simply, "My turn," before pulling on her jacket and falling into step behind him. 

When the war with Ishval is over, and he is allowed to pick his own staff, he picks her first.

As with many things he does, there are multiple reasons for his choice. One is obviously their shared history, sharing a house with a man whose focused devotion to fire alchemy meant he neglected everyone else and his desire to not get caught up in a similar manner. Another is how well they had worked together, even unofficially, in the desert. There is the added fact that having an up and coming female solider on his staff helps his image with the public. He supports female soldiers, and thus indirectly equality for women. 

There are feelings to consider, too. Years of trust in each other, the old, familiar need to protect her although she doesn’t need it now, and her beautiful womanhood. Call it skirt chasing, but he wanted something pleasing to look at. Riza's curves and her childhood habits that haven’t faded made the office feel smaller than it is.

It is two years after things have settled that Roy begins to think of Riza in ways that are beyond admiration. He is starting to develop his reputation as a womanizer to hide his ambitious nature, and one day he realizes every woman he dines is Riza's opposite. Dark hair, light eyes, stocky build. He has unconsciously chosen women who aren't Riza Hawkeye to hide how much he wants her. 

He proposes a clandestine date. 

They meet in a suburb of East City, a middle class restaurant where neither of them should be recognized despite the on-going press both of them receive. He is the Hero of Ishval. She is the future of the military, the future of Amestris’s changing social politics. 

Roy orders a cordon blue, she orders garlic pasta, and Roy wonders if there's is a reason she choose the cheapest option. He thinks of her old house, held together by how far she could stretch her father's military pension, and later tutoring fees. To put those days behind him, and her, he orders pricy wine and requests two slices of the pie of the day be set aside for them. This dinner is on him, not her, she doesn't need to worry about cost.

When the wine is poured and he watches Riza smile at the waitress, Roy is suddenly struck by how beautiful Riza is. Behind her military garb he has been admiring her mind and dedication, her ability to get things done and assist him in all things. She had never been able to hide the fact she had breasts, but they had never been as obvious as they are now in that dress. Or her calves.

Absently, he wonders if he's falling in love because he had asked her out without an idea of how well she cleaned up. 

He hides it though. It's a bit soon, and he has experience with many first dates, but he already knows this one will be different. It will be slower, he will take his time. He will drop her off and not ask to come in.

He asks to take her out next weekend instead and to his shock Hawkeye says no.

"Colonel, Roy, I had a great time, but I can't date you."

"Why not? Is it because I'm your CO?"

"No. I..." he has never seen her so hesitant and uncertain in years, not since she enlisted. The solid spine he has grown used to her having fades and she is no longer a solider named Hawkeye but a girl named Riza who wants to be as least disruptive as possible. Roy hates the idea that he has caused her to revert to her old self. 

"It's okay." He takes a step away. "I did have a pleasant evening and I'll see you in the office on Monday."

"Don't be late, sir," she calls as he walks down the three steps and he waves at her over his shoulder. That's the tone of a strong woman, the one he admires.

And if this truly is love, as he suspects, he can wait a bit. 

A year goes by. He feels the same way, but he’s distracted by Edward Elric. Ed is brash and golden and a handful. He’s 12, thrust into public attention, and Roy finds handling him almost as stressful as the war had been. Handling Ed is a tight rope – keep the press off of Ed even as Roy works the public good Ed does to help Roy’s own image. Ed’s also a minor, the cases he’s assigned require not only careful selection but also careful stipulations. 

It doesn’t help that Ed likes to throw regulations in his face. 

Riza is there the entire time, smiling at Ed. Roy sees them side by side sometimes and imagines Riza with golden haired children, more of Alphonse’s temperament than Ed’s, and it’s painful how much that image affects him. How much he wants it.

But he hasn’t made a move in years.

Riza also hasn’t gone out with anyone.

And then things go to Hell. Bradley’s a homunculus, Olivier Armstrong forces her way into Central, and the country falls apart and is fixed in the course of a day. And it’s thrilling, working with Riza the way they do. Back to back, reaching for each other and striving for the protection of Amestris and the protection of each other. 

There is nothing better than fighting side by side with someone you intimately trust. It’s wrong, but he can’t help imagining what they would be like in bed together.

So he asks her out again after things settle down. And Riza says yes.

They’re a bit more public than they had been years ago – a local play. They walk into the theater in the evening summer light and someone took a photo they sold to the paper to be published the next day.

The Hero Couple they are called. They are a hot topic for a full week.

It’s a glorious week, of Roy imagining a future where he topples Armstrong as Fuhrer. 

But when he asks Riza for a second date, dinner at his favorite restaurant, she counters with a Saturday afternoon coffee. Roy knows, just knows, this isn’t going to work.

He arrives prepared to fight for them. To highlight what they’ve been through, before and during the military, to paint a picture of what things can be after. To point out all the things he loves about her – from her quick reflexes to the way she makes him more effective to how she handles Ed and Al. To say that, for him, he’s been head over heels for her since just after Ishval even if it took years for him to understand that.

Riza’s already there, reading a book, and Roy’s not surprised to see it’s a non-fiction title about the rise of women in the workforce. She already has a half finished cup of coffee on the table. He doesn’t know what that means, other than this meeting with him today isn’t a priority. Not if she’s come here so early.

This date, and now he’s hesitant to call it that, is something she’s slipped in around her already set Saturday schedule. It’s a stark contrast to his mindset. Roy had built the day around meeting her.

He doesn’t bother ordering a coffee. He sits down right in front of her and starts out with “I love you.”

And Riza, beautiful, lovely Riza smiles and says, “I know.”

She doesn’t look up as she says it. She slips her bookmark into place and then focuses her attention on Roy.

And he can tell he’s lost her. Maybe never had her. He still tries though. Muddles through what he planned to say so badly embarrassing doesn’t cover it.

Riza smiles softly at him, but doesn’t say a word as she sits there primly. 

She had always planned on using this coffee date to turn him down. Permanently.

“Did we ever have a chance?” He hates how he sounds so insecure, but that’s how he feels. The world he has built for himself has always had Riza at the center, even before he realized it, and now that will never be.

“Maybe,” she says, staring directly at him. “You’ve always been a big part of my life Roy. I joined the military to protect you, help you. But I met someone shortly before I enlisted. We had an affair I guess you could say. I didn’t think much of it at the time.

“What they told me, taught me, stayed with me throughout Ishval. And then beyond. We rarely communicated with each other, but they wouldn’t leave my mind despite being apart for years. In that one day, we connected so strongly nothing I’ve felt can match it. Though you’ve come close.”

“They must be someone special, to have made such an impression on you.” It hurts, knowing that person isn’t him. It hurts, knowing that what he’s describing is exactly what he’s feeling towards her.

“They are. And while we’ve been unorthodox in our relationship, with not communicating and only occasional meet-ups, we’re now in a position to do it properly. I’m sorry, that I said yes to our date last week. I knew you liked be before, but I had hoped it had passed and you were just being kind.” Riza sighs and Roy finds himself doing the same.

“I can’t say no to that. I can’t get between someone you care so deeply for.” Any other person, he would. He’s slipped in between Havoc and women before. Riza though is his first real love, maybe his only one, and he’d do anything for her happiness.

She is happy about this new relationship. Roy can see it in the way her lip twitches up in the corner. The way her caramel eyes light up and she makes gestures with her hands – an act he’s only seen her do twice.

“Thank you. For respecting my choices. And also because if you tried to do something, not only would you have a bullet in your foot but maybe a sword in your gut too.”

“He’s a swordsman, then?”

“She.” A new voice says.

Roy watches Fuhrer Olivier Armstrong step up to the table and place a hand on the back of Riza’s chair.

They’re in public. There is nothing romantic or affectionate or gently in the movement. It’s just a hand on the back of a chair. But Roy reads the possessiveness in Olivier’s frame. Notes how Riza leans back and to the left slightly to touch the Fuhrer’s hand with her back.

No one would know. Except Roy. Not only because of the conversation he just had, but because he knows Riza. Is suddenly surprised at how well he’s catalogued her body language. 

Riza belongs to Olivier. Olivier belongs to Riza. It’s no wonder at all why the Roy and Olivier have been rivals, even if Roy didn’t know till know just what had set it off.

He glares at the Fuhrer. Roy doesn’t have to say the words. If Olivier is no longer bringing Riza happiness, is she disappoints Riza, or pushes her aside, or anything Roy will slip into that space. He’s backing off now, because Riza is happy. But as soon as it fades, Roy will make sure he’s the one Riza turns to.

Olivier glares back. Roy can see the sentences in the air between them. I’m better than you in politics, leading, and yes love too. You’ll never get the chance.

He hopes she’s right.

Riza bids goodbye and leaves the café with Olivier. He watches their backs, both ramrod straight. He thinks, Roy might have protected Riza when they were younger, but surely it’s Olivier who gave Riza the knowledge and tools to survive in a military just opening its doors to women. He can’t blame Riza for falling in love with the Ice Queen Olivier Armstrong, thinking about it that way. It’s more surprising Olivier fell for Riza return.

He doubts they’ll ever take their relationship public anytime soon. They’ve made such strides in Amestris’s society already but this is one aspect Roy feels is a solid barrier. 

It won’t stop them though.


End file.
